COVID-19 Relief Update: Funds for Agriculture Available, But for How Long?
May 10, 2020 
There’s good news and (potential) bad news for controlled-environment greenhouse growers and others in the horticulture industry looking for financial relief at the federal level to help with the financial implications of the coronavirus.
Perhaps the most recent (as of May 8) development of note is how agriculture is affected by the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program. This program is a Small Business Administration (SBA) initiative, and made headlines last month when the passage of the CARES Act included a provision that classified COVID-19 as a disaster (that verbiage is normally only used in the EIDL program in cases of extreme weather). At the time, agriculture businesses were largely excluded from EIDL funding.
However, according to Tal Coley, Director of Government Affairs at AmericanHort, the SBA announced earlier this week that not only are ag businesses now eligible for EIDL relief, they have temporary exclusivity in being eligible for funding, thanks to strong support for the industry on Capitol Hill for its role as a vital resource in the nation’s infrastructure.
More good news, Coley notes: The SBA is going back into EIDL loan applications that had previously been denied from agriculture businesses and reprocessing them for consideration. This process might be a quick one, too. Unlike loans offered the Payment Protection Program (PPP, part of the CARES Act) that must be submitted through lending institutions, these loans are processed directly through SBA.
There are some potential hurdles, however, according to Coley:
- It is unclear how long agriculture will have exclusive access to EIDL relief
- It is unclear (and changes by the day) how long the funds will last
- Unlike PPP loans, which can largely be forgiven, the SBA loans through the EIDL program have much fewer forgiveness provisions.
“Agriculture is at the front of the line for EIDL loans right now, so growers should take advantage of it while they can,” Coley says. He also suggests checking both the EIDL and PPP websites frequently, since the available funding can run out at ant time (a Washington Post article from May 7 says new applications are already being denied, and loan amounts for current applications are being capped at $150,000, down from the original amount of $2 million).
Coley encourages business owners with questions to reach out to AmericanHort or its partner organization K-Coe Isom, an agriculture consulting and accounting firm.
Subscribe to eNewsletter
